My Oura Ring told me I was sick. I disregarded it, and then got sick

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

ZDNET key takeaways 

• The Oura Ring detected my cold early. 
• Health trackers are getting good at this. 
• It's a helpful illness detector and a way to check in when sick. 

Last Wednesday morning, I woke up and did what I normally do when I open my eyes. I grabbed my phone and checked my Oura app to see how I slept. This morning, however, Oura's home page looked a bit different. 

Unlike the sleep and readiness scores I usually see on the home page, a new message appeared on top. While no biomarker deviated strongly from my baseline, Oura's Symptom Radar feature warned me that my biometrics indicated “major signs of strain.” It encouraged me to take it easy — a tall task given that I was headed into the office for the workday.  

Also: Oura Ring 3 vs. Oura Ring 4: I've tested both smart rings, and here's the one to buy in 2026

That morning, I felt normal and healthy. I was convinced Oura had made an algorithmic error. To err on the cautious side, I spent the workday pre-emptively drinking bottle after bottle of water. 

Where things went downhill

The next day, I woke up to see that my Oura Ring's Symptom Radar indicator had gone back to no signs of strain, despite the fact that I now had a scratchy throat – nothing major, just a tickle. Over the course of the workday, I could feel myself getting more and more exhausted, and by the day's end, I was huddled in my bed, shaking with chills under layers of sheets and blankets. 

My temperature read 100.7 degrees Fahrenheit. “I fear the Oura Ring was correct,” I texted my roommates in defeat.

Also: The best smart rings 

Oura Rings and health trackers like smart watches or smart rings are becoming so proficient at health monitoring that they can detect changes in the body first. The devices are worn close to the body 24/7, recording a user's heart rate, respiration rate, skin temperature, oxygen saturation, and more. 

So when deviations from the baseline occur during sleep or a workout, these devices can quickly detect them and notify the user. This illness-spotting mechanism has resulted in a few miraculous stories over the years. 

The Oura Ring identified changes in a nurse practitioner's body that ultimately led to a Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis. It's also been early to detect pregnancy in many users who have recounted their experience on the Oura Ring Reddit. It also encouraged one user to get a check-up with their general practitioner because of their constant stress peaks and heart palpitations. That appointment led to an autoimmune disease diagnosis.

The following morning, I woke up to Symptom Radar again decrying major signs of strain, this time telling me my body temperature was out of range. The next day, it detected that my body temperature, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and respiration rate were all out of whack. 

Also: Are AI health coaches a scam? I tested Google's Fitbit Premium for a month to find out

For the next handful of days, I spent my waking hours (few and far between) languishing in my bed, guzzling cough syrup and Gatorade, eating bowls of minestrone soup, and swallowing extra-strength ibuprofen. Each morning, I would wake up and check the Oura app to see if my biometrics were improving. 

I don't pay much attention to my sleep scores or heart rate metrics on an average day, but as I've used the Oura Ring over the past few years, I keep a close eye on them when I get sick. I've found it helpful to track my illness's progression through biomarkers like resting heart rate, which increases as you get sicker and decreases as you recover. 

The Oura app makes this easy by offering this vital data in daily and historical views. You can track your body temperature or HRV over time and see how your illness (or health) affects these trends. 

Moving forward

A glance at the Oura Ring Reddit proves that Symptom Radar is also working on several other Oura Ring users, as we're in the midst of a bad cold and flu season. 

Also: Ten Apple Watch features that convinced me to switch to the wearable full time

While the Oura Ring helped to spot the illness, a speedy visit to the doctor on the onset of symptoms, flu shots, and medicine were the reasons it went away quickly. Wearable tech might be a good prognosticator of illness, but it can't prevent it – nor can it stop its spread. 

This technology, however, can identify early signs of illness. It can help users continuously track biometrics that they couldn't previously track with as much regularity and accuracy.